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In gods we trust : the evolutionary landscape of religion

"How do we explain the cultural hold of religion throughout history? Why are supernatural concepts culturally universal? What do biology, psychology, anthropology, and cognitive neuroscience have to tell us about the religious differences and similarities among different cultural groups? How is it that religious explanations of natural phenomena have had a greater hold on our collective imagination that most political, economic, and scientific accounts?" "In this interdisciplinary book, Scott Atran addresses these questions and more as he attempts to map the evolutionary landscape of religion. He argues that current explanations for religion do not sufficiently explain society's commitments to a logically absurd world of supernatural causes and beings, questioning why evolution did not select against such curiously costly beliefs and behaviors as making gigantic pyramids to house the dead, blowing oneself up for the pleasures of paradise, sacrificing one's children as a measure of religious sincerity, or setting aside large chunks of time to mumble incoherent words repititiously. Observing the limitations of most functional explanations for the cultural power of religion, he proposes that religion is less an adaptation to a specific function (or collective need) than a natural basin of possibilities to which human lives spontaneously converge. If naturally selected structures of cognition, emotion, and organization channel our thoughts and behaviors into cultural paths that include some kind of religious belief or commitment, he argues that secular ideologies attempting to replace religion will always be at a disadvantage in terms of cultural survival."--Jacket.Read more...

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Abstract:

Scott Atran's book is an ambitious attempt to explain the origins of religion using what we now know about the evolution of cognition.Read more...

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Publisher Synopsis

Scott Atran, a cognitive anthropologist and psychologist, presents in this volume a rich, nuanced cognitive-evolutionary account of religion... From this vantage, religion is not doctrine, or institutions, or even faith. Religion ensues from the ordinary workings of the human mind as it deals with emotionally compelling problems of human existence, such as birth, aging, death, unforeseen calamities, and love... I have little but praise for this marvelous book...It does not take long to realize that one is dealing with a formidable mind; Atran is not only a fine writer, his breadth of knowledge and intellectual depth are nothing short of inspiring. This book is one to read slowly and savor. Keep a post-it pad handy, to mark the pages: the scope of this book isso wide-ranging that whatever your research interest in evolutionary psychology, it is bound to be touched upon at some point in these 400 pages of informative analysis. * Human Nature Review * In Gods We Trust is by far the best exploration so far of the evolutionary basis of religious behavior. * James Fox, Prof of Anthropology, Stanford University * With almost 1000 references and discussions of most of human history and culture, from Neanderthal burials to suicide-bombers in the Palestinian anti-colonialist struggle, this book is consciously and truly encyclopedic in scope, and shows both breadth and depth of scholarship...the reader finds himself constantly challenged and provoked into an intellectual ping-pong game as he follows the arguments and the huge body of findings marshalled to buttressthem...Atran managed to combine the old and the new by relating the automatic cognitive operations to existential anxieties. This combination will be a benchmark and a challenge to students od religion in all disciplines. * Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, in Human Nature Review *Read more...